Academic excellence meets real-world impact in Fairfield’s Community-Engaged Learning courses designed to immerse students in experiential learning opportunities, collaboratively crafted with community partners at local, national, and global levels. These experiences contribute to the public good, support our partners' missions, and significantly enhance student learning.
Courses & Immersion Opportunities
Center of Social Impact staff and students building a community garden.
Native American Literature and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation
Each August, student volunteers travel to South Dakota with Peter Bayers, Professor of English and Director of the American Studies Program, to work with Simply Smiles on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation. Students help construct homes, maintain the community garden, and facilitate a summer camp.
Community, Public, And Global Health Nursing
U.S. nursing students work with students from Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua, faculty from Fairfield and UCA, and community partners to develop and implement sustainable, evidence-based interventions to address health concerns.
Vertebrate Zoology Field Experience in Brazil
Students travel with Dr. Ashley Byun, Associate Professor of Biology, to Ubatuba, Brazil, to work with the NGO PROFAUNA. Together with community partners, the students explore the negative impact urban and agricultural development has on the environment and wildlife, analyzing road kill occurrences and developing a system to help deter wild and endangered animals from the road.
